How structured data tells Google who a founder is and what a company is

Structured data is code added to a web page that states facts in a format search engines can read directly: this is a company, this is its logo, this person wrote this article. Google documents several types that bear on how a business and its people are identified.

For a founder or executive, three types matter most: Organization, Article author markup and ProfilePage. Each has its own rules, and Google's documentation is explicit about what the markup does and does not deliver.

What Organization markup describes

Google's documentation recommends placing Organization markup on a company's home page or on a single page that describes the organization, such as the about-us page. Its purpose is to help Google understand administrative details about the organization and tell it apart from others in search results.

No property is mandatory. Google instead asks site owners to add as many recommended properties as apply. The emphasis is on a name and alternate name, an address or phone number that shows a real-world presence, and a URL or logo that shows an online presence. Merchants can also add return-policy and shipping-policy details.

Some properties work in the background, such as the ISO 6523 code and the NAICS industry code. Others affect visible elements. Google says the logo and other properties can influence elements such as a knowledge panel, but it does not promise that a panel will appear.

The sameAs property and the logo rules

The sameAs property takes the addresses of other pages with more information about the organization, such as social media or review-site profiles. More than one can be listed.

Logos carry specific technical rules. The image must be at least 112 by 112 pixels, sit at a URL that Google can crawl and index, and use a file format that Google Images supports. It should also be checked to look as intended on a purely white background. If the logo is given as an ImageObject, that object needs a valid content URL or URL.

Google's documentation for the Organization type was last updated on 8 September 2026.

How Article markup attaches a byline to a person

Article markup is where a founder's authorship of a bylined piece is stated. It has no required properties. Google's guidance is to add the ones that apply.

The author field has detailed rules. The type must be Person for an individual and Organization for a company, and every author shown on the page should be marked up. Multiple authors go in separate entries rather than one merged field.

The author name field should hold only the name. Job titles, honorifics, the publisher's name and introductory words such as "posted by" belong in other properties, including jobTitle, honorificPrefix, honorificSuffix and publisher.

Each author can also carry a URL pointing to a page that uniquely identifies them, such as a social media page, an about-me page or a bio page. Where that is an internal profile page, Google recommends marking up that author with ProfilePage structured data. The sameAs property can be used instead, and Google understands both. For an organization as author, the link can go to the organization's home page.

What ProfilePage markup covers

ProfilePage is designed for sites where people or organizations share opinions directly, such as forums, news author pages and company staff pages. Google says it helps Google Search understand creators who post in online communities and can show their content in search results, including in the Discussions and Forums feature.

The one required property is mainEntity, which names the Person or Organization the profile page represents. Google tells publishers to use the more specific type when it is known and to default to Person when it is not.

A name is required unless an alternate name is given. The name should ideally be a real name, while the alternate name can hold a public handle. Optional fields include sameAs links to external profiles, a description such as author information, a persistent identifier that survives a change of handle, and a profile image.

Images should be crawlable and indexable, and placeholder or default images should not be used. Google recommends several high-resolution versions in 16:9, 4:3 and 1:1 ratios.

Activity statistics have a boundary. The interactionStatistic field is for platform-level figures such as followers or likes received, and only figures from the hosting platform belong there. A separate field covers the entity's own activity, such as posts written or follows made.

The page must focus on a single person or organization affiliated with the website. Forum user profiles, news author pages and employee pages qualify. A store's home page or a third-party review site does not.

The dateModified field should reflect human edits to the profile, not automated changes such as new inbound links.

Rules that apply to all markup

Google's general structured data policies apply to every type. JSON-LD is the recommended format, with Microdata and RDFa also supported. Structured data pages must not be blocked from Googlebot by robots.txt, noindex or login requirements.

Content rules are strict. Markup must not describe anything that is not visible to readers of the page, and it must not be irrelevant or misleading, such as fake reviews. It must follow Google's spam policies, use original content, and stay up to date. Google says it will not show rich results for outdated content that is no longer relevant.

A structured data problem can trigger a manual action. Google says this removes the page's eligibility for rich results but does not change its ranking in web search. On pages under a manual action, the structured data is ignored.

Validation and what remains uncertain

Google's process starts with the Rich Results Test, which flags critical errors. Owners then deploy markup to a few pages and check them with the URL Inspection tool, request recrawling and allow several days for reindexing. A sitemap can be submitted, and the Search Console Sitemap API can automate that step.

Valid markup does not ensure a result. Google states that it "does not guarantee" that features using structured data will appear, and that its systems may choose another format, including plain text. Results can also be suppressed when markup does not represent the main content, is misleading or describes hidden content. Passing the Rich Results Test does not guarantee that the markup will be shown in search results.

For a founder or executive, this means markup is a way of stating facts accurately, not a way of obtaining a particular search appearance. The facts it states must already be visible on the page.